Ireland put celebrations on hold to chase Slam
It was a good two hours after this game ended on Saturday when Joe Schmidt came back down to the press area, deep in the bowels of the Aviva Stadium, to speak to reporters again.
Having initially taken questions in the immediate aftermath of Ireland’s bonus-point win over Scotland, when it was not yet clear whether England would manage to keep the championship alive by winning in Paris, Ireland’s head coach had promised to return if Eddie Jones’s team failed to do so.
Inevitably, with the crowds having long since dispersed and the initial euphoria having given way to aches and pains and Deep Heat, it all felt a little flat, a point Schmidt was happy to concede when asked to compare the three titles Ireland have now amassed during his five years in charge.
“To be honest,” Schmidt said, “2014 [when Ireland won the title in Paris in Brian O’driscoll’s final match] is still, probably, dare I say it, the most special because we won it the moment we finished the game. We won it with the guys on the pitch at the time.
“Since then, in 2015 [when Ireland beat Scotland at Murrayfield and then had to watch as England narrowly failed to beat France by the required 26 points], we were in suits shouting at Uini Atonio to keep the ball and not let it squirt out because England might score and the championship could be lost. So, we were cheering on one team to beat another.
“And today was a little bit similar. Same two teams, and a different result for us but one that gives us that clear air to go to Twickenham with the championship already won.”
Nothing can alter that last fact, of course. Ireland are this year’s Natwest Six Nations champions. And they fully deserve to be, having played not only the best rugby but also having managed to secure a win on the road at a venue other than Rome. Sure, the fixture list favoured them this year, with three home games on the spin following that scrappy opening-day trip to Paris. But that is the Six Nations, for better or worse.
This bonus-point win over Scotland, courtesy of a brace of first-half tries from rising star Jacob Stockdale, and second-half efforts from Conor Murray and Sean Cronin, was a perfect illustration of what an increasingly assured outfit Ireland have become.
They have world-class players sprinkled liberally throughout the team, from Tadhg Furlong to Conor Murray to Jonathan Sexton. But more than that, they have effective combinations all over the pitch. And they are incredibly clear in what they are trying to achieve. Perhaps most impressive has been the way they have coped with injuries to key players. James Ryan – playing under-20s rugby 18 months ago – came in for Iain Henderson against Wales and was so effective he kept his place. Andrew Porter stepped in for Furlong and looked to the manor born.
Both Robbie Henshaw and Chris Farrell were struck by injury, having played well at 13. But Garry Ringrose slotted back in off the back of six matches all season and looked as if he had never been away. Ringrose was superb on Saturday, a bundle of mischief.
Scotland were not bad, either, but they wasted too many try-scoring opportunities, with Blair Kinghorn’s second-half effort too little, too late. Schmidt’s team have the chance now to get that dopamine hit they missed out on last Saturday. And then some.
Win at England on St Patrick’s Day to secure what would be only Ireland’s third Grand Slam, and those players won’t have to buy a Guinness again for the rest of their lives. Lose, and they will have to live with the fact that they may never get such a golden opportunity again. This is an opportunity, as Sexton was quick to remind his younger team-mates, that does not come around often.
Of course, Schmidt’s players were not so keen to fan the flames afterwards, preferring instead to focus on their ‘recoveries’ and get-
ting the ‘day-to-day processes’ right. “I will try not to get distracted by what’s at stake next week and focus on the immediate,” Ringrose said in a line that may or may not have been regurgitated straight from the Schmidt Handbook.
Even Drico (Brian O’driscoll) 2.0, though, couldn’t completely sidestep the question of what will be at stake on Saturday. “Yeah, it is a pretty big one,” he smiled.
“I haven’t played there before myself,” said Ringrose. “It would be pretty special to go to what is an incredible stadium in front of 80odd thousand people…” he did not need to finish the sentence. The title is already theirs. Now history beckons for this Ireland team.